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Postcards
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From: Rob Reid <reid>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 09:14:28 -0600
I, too, just finished Postcards from No Man's Land and, while I enjoyed it, thought that it belonged to that long list of award winners that adults on award committees loved but kids won't pick it up. I do plan to suggest it to those few kids who enjoy the subject matter and are excellent readers, though. I anticipate it to be a hard sell, but hope I'm pleasantly suprised.
Friday, I had the television on in the background while reading the book. I reached the section in the book where there are voices from the past battle at the same time NBC's hired-and-retired general was complaining to Katie Couric that the Iraquis weren't following the "rules of war", ie, dressing up as civilians. The absurdity of that complaint was rolling around in my mind when I read the following passage from Postcards:
"I lost too many friends. When I got married at the end of the war, I realized that my best man was the ninth on a mental list of who I would have liked; the first eight dead or incapacitated. For years I could not talk about or read about Arnhem. When I did start reading, I came to the conclusion that it was all due to the flag-waving attitude of people like (Field Marshall B.L.) Montgomery who wanted to show how much cleverer they were than the others."
Nuff said. I was going to go on more about our multi-billion dollar, overseas manhunt, but instead will end with a Doris Lessing quote that Chambers used to open the chapter on page 201 that has nothing to do with war, but is a good quote dealing with the whole YA genre:
"Growing up is, after all, only the understanding that one's unique and incredible experience is what everyone shares."
Rob Reid Youth Services/Special Needs Coordinator Indianhead Federated Library System 1538 Truax Blvd, Eau Claire, WI 54703 715?9P82, ext. 14 Fax: 715?9Q51 reid at ifls.lib.wi.us
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Received on Mon 31 Mar 2003 09:14:28 AM CST
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 09:14:28 -0600
I, too, just finished Postcards from No Man's Land and, while I enjoyed it, thought that it belonged to that long list of award winners that adults on award committees loved but kids won't pick it up. I do plan to suggest it to those few kids who enjoy the subject matter and are excellent readers, though. I anticipate it to be a hard sell, but hope I'm pleasantly suprised.
Friday, I had the television on in the background while reading the book. I reached the section in the book where there are voices from the past battle at the same time NBC's hired-and-retired general was complaining to Katie Couric that the Iraquis weren't following the "rules of war", ie, dressing up as civilians. The absurdity of that complaint was rolling around in my mind when I read the following passage from Postcards:
"I lost too many friends. When I got married at the end of the war, I realized that my best man was the ninth on a mental list of who I would have liked; the first eight dead or incapacitated. For years I could not talk about or read about Arnhem. When I did start reading, I came to the conclusion that it was all due to the flag-waving attitude of people like (Field Marshall B.L.) Montgomery who wanted to show how much cleverer they were than the others."
Nuff said. I was going to go on more about our multi-billion dollar, overseas manhunt, but instead will end with a Doris Lessing quote that Chambers used to open the chapter on page 201 that has nothing to do with war, but is a good quote dealing with the whole YA genre:
"Growing up is, after all, only the understanding that one's unique and incredible experience is what everyone shares."
Rob Reid Youth Services/Special Needs Coordinator Indianhead Federated Library System 1538 Truax Blvd, Eau Claire, WI 54703 715?9P82, ext. 14 Fax: 715?9Q51 reid at ifls.lib.wi.us
************************************************************** Scanned by MailScan Content-Security and Anti-Virus Software. Visit http://www.mwti.net for more info on eScan and MailScan.
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Received on Mon 31 Mar 2003 09:14:28 AM CST
